HOUSTON -- Jack Sock made short work of former champion Ivo Karlovic, winning 6-1, 6-4 in the first round of the U.
[b]Air Force 1 07 Pas Cher[/b] .S. mens Clay Court Championship on Monday at River Oaks Country Club. The 21-year-old American had lost both previous meetings with the 6-foot-10 Karlovic, who won the only U.S. mens tournament played on clay in 2007 at a different Houston venue. In this one Sock broke the Croatians huge serve twice in the first set and wound up spending less than an hour on the court. Socks countryman, Sam Querry, had to battle to get past Alex Bogomolov Jr., of Russia 6-4, 7-6
, but it was a satisfying win for the tournaments 2010 runner-up. "Right now Ill take one pretty much however I can get it," said Querrey, whose ranking has plunged from a high of 17 in 2011 to its current 82. He hasnt advanced into the third round this season since the Australian Open in January. "Its the first time Ive been able to grind through a tough match like that all year," he said. "Hopefully it will lead to more wins and better results." German-born Dustin Brown easily moved on, beating American Rhyne Williams 6-1, 6-2. Williams had reached the tournaments semifinals last year. The 29-year-old Brown, who began his pro career playing out of Jamaica, is ranked 101st. Alejandro Gonzalez of Colombia rallied to eliminate Marcos Baghdatis of Cypress 4-6, 6-2, 6-1 in the final match of the night. Baghdatis, the Australian Open runner-up in 2006 who once ranked eighth, had been given a wild card by tournament organizers. His ranking has fallen to 129. Americans Ryan Harrison and Ryan Harrison, Peter Polansky of Canada and Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo of Spain won spots in the 28-man field with victories in the qualifying tournament. Defending champion John Isner, ranked a career-high ninth, is the tournaments No. 1 seed. Spaniard Tommy Robredo is seeded second. They play their first matches Wednesday.
[b]Air Force 1 Basse Noir[/b] .com) - Markus Granlund scored the game-winning goal as the Calgary Flames used an early offensive flurry to defeat the Los Angeles Kings, 2-1, on Monday.
[b]Air Force 1 Low Utility Pas Cher[/b] .com) - Charlie Davies netted a pair of goals, including the series-winner on Saturday, as the New England Revolution battled the New York Red Bulls to a 2-2 draw in the second leg of the Eastern Conference Championship at Gillette Stadium and advanced to MLS Cup final via a thrilling 4-3 aggregate victory.VANCOUVER -- When the Vancouver Canucks hired John Tortorella, performances like Saturday nights were probably what they envisioned. Fast, aggressive forecheck and relentless puck pressure in all three zones are hallmarks of the fiery coachs style, and it was all on display against the overmatched Edmonton Oilers. Dan Hamhuis and Jannik Hansen scored 18 seconds apart late in the first period as the Canucks cruised to a 6-2 victory over the Oilers in Vancouvers home opener. "Thats the way we want to play. Thats the way we want to continue to play and we want to enforce that on other teams," said Canucks centre Ryan Kesler, who scored in the second period. "We want to do that every night. We want to win that way." Daniel Sedin had a goal and an assist, and Brad Richardson and Jason Garrison -- into an empty net -- also scored for the Canucks (1-1-0) as Roberto Luongo made 21 saves. Henrik Sedin picked up three assists as Vancouver rebounded from Thursdays season-opening 4-1 road loss to the San Jose Sharks in impressive fashion. "We were aggressive, we put a lot of pressure on their (defence)," said Henrik Sedin. "We didnt really play this way for the last couple of years, we were sitting back a little bit more and played a little more on the safe side." Tortorella, who replaced the fired Alain Vigneault in the off-season, has answered repeated questions about the players ability to adapt to his system. The Canucks showed spurts in their season-opening road loss to San Jose but Saturdays performance was closer to what the coach envisioned. "We were pretty consistent tonight in our attack," said Tortorella. "(Im) pretty satisfied with that part of the game." Luongo, back as Vancouvers No. 1 goalie after the the Canucks traded Cory Scheinder to the New Jersey Devils, had a good view of his teams domination of Edmonton. "Thats one of the best games Ive seen this team play in a long time," said Luongo. "It was 60 minutes. It was hard. We sustained pressure the whole game." Jeff Petry and Boyd Gordon had the goals for the Oilers (0-2-0). Devan Dubnyk allowed five goals on 31 shots before being replaced in the second period by Jason LaBarbera. The Edmonton backup finished with 12 saves. Oilers rookie head coach Dallas Eakins has spent the pre-season trying to shake the teams image of being in rebuild mode, stressing that the time to win is now. Its clearly going to take some time. "Old habits die hard," Eakins said. "I was encouraged with certain things going through the pre-season. I was more encouraged even though we let that game get away against Winnipeg (a 5-4 season-opening home loss). "Tonight we are back to square one. This isnt going to be an easy process here. We will dig our heels in and continue on." After the teams exchanged goals in the games first four minutes, the Canucks carrried the play for the rest of the period, with Hamhuis and Hansen beating Dubnyk in quick succession late to give Vancouver a 3-1 lead after 20 minutes.
[b]Nike Air Force 1 Low Pas Cher[/b]. Hamhuis made it 2-1 with a shot from just inside the Edmonton blue-line that took a deflection off Petrys stick with 1:33 left in the period. The fans at Rogers Arena had barely sat down from celebrating that goal when Hansen, who took the spot of the injured Alexandre Burrows on Vancouvers top line, beat Dubnyk from the slot to give his team a 3-1 edge at 18:45 as the Canucks closed out the period with a 22-8 advantage on the shot clock. Vancouver then made it 4-1 on the power play at 7:21 of the second on a picture-perfect passing play. Alexander Edler fed Henrik Sedin, who in turn found his brother Daniel with a no-look spin-o-rama pass in front of a helpless Dubnyk. The Vancouver onslaught continued at 13:56 when Kesler ripped a shot past Dubnyk from the top of the faceoff circle with the teams playing 4-on-4. That spelled the end of the night for the Edmonton goaltender, who was replaced by LaBarbera. "We shot a lot tonight. It was good to see. We had a lot of second and third opportunities. When you shoot that much youre going to get six goals," said Kesler, who finished with nine shots. "You shoot that much, you play that much with the puck, youre going to tire out the other team." Gordon gave Edmonton some life when he scored off an odd-man rush at 15:23 but the Oilers still trailed by three after two periods and wouldnt get any closer in the third before Garrison iced it with a short-handed empty-net goal at 18:16. The Oilers got on the board first at 1:58 of the opening period when Petry beat Luongo five-hole from a sharp angle with both teams down a man. But the lead didnt last long as Richardson, who joined the Canucks as a free agent in the off-season, raced in on a short-handed breakaway and beat Dubnyk between the pads to tie the score at 3:42 before Hamhuis and Hansen scored late in the period. "We really did come out OK," said Oilers left-winger Taylor Hall, who was minus-4. "We scored the first goal. They scored right after that and we just kind of fell off the wagon there." Notes: Garrison also added an assist. ... Burrows is expected to miss a couple of weeks after breaking a bone in his foot blocking a shot in the loss to San Jose. ... David Booth took Hansens spot on the second line with Kesler and Chris Higgins. ... Edmonton lost left-winger Jesse Joensuu to a back injury in the first period. Eakins said he will be re-evaluated Sunday. ... The Oilers were without centres Sam Gagner (broken jaw) and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins (shoulder surgery). Edmonton expects to have Nugent-Hopkins back for Mondays home game against the New Jersey Devils. Canucks right-winger Zack Kassian served the fifth game of his eight-game suspension for the hit that broke Gagners jaw. ' ' '
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